The brassstats.com rankings began life over 20 years ago in Brass Band World magazine. The early years were dominated by the great Fairey band under Major Peter Parkes / James Gourlay but since then, the 'start of year' top band honour has been shared around a bit.

Cory will start a calendar year as the number one band for the fifth time, and a third year in a row - the first band to achieve this particular hat-trick since Fairey in 1997-99. All previous 'start of year' top bands are as follows:

1992 Foden's

1993 Fairey

1994 Fairey

1995 Fairey

1996 Black Dyke

1997 Fairey

1998 Fairey

1999 Fairey

2000 Foden's

2001 Foden's

2002 Yorkshire Building Society

2003 Foden's

2004 Fairey

2005 Cory

2006 Cory

2007 Black Dyke

2008 Grimethorpe

2009 Grimethorpe

2010 Black Dyke

2011 Brighouse & Rastrick

2012 Brighouse & Rastrick

2013 Cory

2014 Cory

2015 Cory